Lesson Guide Plans: Basics
Your lessons must address the learner's needs - this is done by having:
The elements above need to be in place for all your lessons, including your exam lesson.
In addition to these elements, you need to have an idea about the teaching methods you will use for any given subject/learner.
When do you plan?
You will usually discuss the lesson plan at the end of the previous lesson to get a general idea of what will be covered next based on the lesson progress.
The plan might be to repeat and practise things that have already been learned - with specific emphasis on strengthening weak areas, or the introduction of a new topic. More often than not it will be a combination of both of these things.
Training location:
As your experience grows, you will find specific roads that are ideal for particular lesson subjects or that can help with the specific needs of any given learner. The main thing is that the training routes should offer plenty of opportunity for practising the lesson topics and fit with the learner's ability level. For example, you wouldn't take a beginner on a route with heavy traffic.
Measuring progress:
It's helpful to measure your learner's confidence and feelings about the subject and their perceived skill level both at the start and end of the lesson – this gives a measure of progress. The scaling method that you learned in ADI Part-Two is a useful tool for this. You will also maintain a record from week to week to keep the learning on track.
Learning goals:
Lesson goals are basic statements about what the learner will achieve by the end of the lesson.
The subject of goals can be quite detailed - but for now all we want you to understand is that lessons need targets in order to measure achievement. These goals can be simple statements such as 'Will be able to turn left at roundabouts'. More detailed goals would break turning left at roundabouts into smaller specific parts (mirrors, signal timing, position, speed, observation, etc.). After you qualify you can learn about goal setting in more depth but this is not necessary for now. (If you are interested in learning more about goal setting, try this Google search).
As we have been stressing, it's essential to understand that the goals are not set in stone.
The goals are based on the learner's needs, these can change at any time, especially if unforeseen problems arise. If the needs change (and they often will), the goals change - with this in mind, needs come first.
It's not uncommon for ADI test candidates to stick doggedly to their lesson plan and lesson goals - even when they do not meet the learner's immediate needs.
For example, your plan might be to improve the learner's roundabout procedures, but part way into the lesson, they become confused by a set of traffic lights. The appropriate action would be to deal with the issue that arises (the lights) and then, if time permits, return to the original roundabout plan.
The chances are that if you do not change the plan to deal with the traffic light issue, you will waste the remaining lesson time because the learner will be distracted (and possibly upset) by the lights incident.
The planning process requires 'teamwork' – the team here is you and your learner. You will work with the learner to determine learning goals and formulate your plan.
Plans for individual lessons can be developed around your generic lesson plans for specific topics. The fixed elements of the generic plan might include location and technical goals. The variable elements will relate to the learner's needs - the same technical information might be delivered differently or with different emphasis for different learners depending on their prior knowledge or learning preferences.
We have already stated (a few times!) that you might need to change your plan.
Things sometimes go wrong in even the best-planned lessons. By thinking about the lesson and the pupil beforehand, you can often predict where things might go wrong and how you might adapt to the situation. This will have a bearing on the location you choose - give yourself options where you can deviate from the route if you need to deviate from the plan. With experience, 'flexibility' will become second nature.
Next: Basic plan examples...